''Working on the Statue of Liberty'', also known as ''Statue of Liberty'', is a 1946

oil painting Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments with a medium of drying oil as the binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on wood panel or canvas for several centuries, spreading from Europe to the rest of ...

by American illustrator

Norman Rockwell Norman Percevel Rockwell (February 3, 1894 – November 8, 1978) was an American painter and illustrator. His works have a broad popular appeal in the United States for their reflection of Culture of the United States, the country's culture. Roc ...

, showing workmen cleaning the torch held aloft by the Statue of Liberty (''Liberty Enlightening the World'') in New York Harbor.

Creation

The painting was created for the cover of an edition of ''

The Saturday Evening Post ''The Saturday Evening Post'' is an American magazine, currently published six times a year. It was issued weekly under this title from 1897 until 1963, then every two weeks until 1969. From the 1920s to the 1960s, it was one of the most widely ...

'', published on 6 July 1946, from sketches that Rockwell made in March 1946. It depicts the cleaning of the amber-coloured glass of the torch, an operation undertaken annually each July. Rockwell focuses on just a small part of the Statue of Liberty – the torch, a long arm, and part of the head of the colossal statue, silhouetted against a clear summer blue sky. Five workmen are attached to the statue by ropes, including one who is a caricature of Rockwell himself, and one

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...

in a red shirt. The inclusion of a non-white figure working with whites, apparently only noticed in 2011, contravened a ''Saturday Evening Post'' policy of only showing people of ethnicity in subservient roles.

Display in the Oval Office

The painting came into the possession of Steven Spielberg, who donated it to the permanent art collection of the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in ...

in 1994. It was displayed in the Oval Office during the administrations of

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

, and

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...

, sometimes to the left of the President's desk, above a cabinet or table on which was displayed

Frederic Remington Frederic Sackrider Remington (October 4, 1861 – December 26, 1909) was an American painter, illustrator, sculptor, and writer who specialized in the genre of Western American Art. His works are known for depicting the Western United Stat ...

's sculpture '' The Bronco Buster''. It was later moved by Obama to a position next to the fireplace, above a

bust of Martin Luther King Jr Bust commonly refers to: * A woman's breasts * Bust (sculpture), of head and shoulders * An arrest Bust may also refer to: Places *Bust, Bas-Rhin, a city in France * Lashkargah, Afghanistan, known as Bust historically Media * ''Bust'' (magaz ...

. In January 2017, shortly after the inauguration of

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...

, the painting was still in the Oval Office. It was reportedly removed later in 2017, in favor of a portrait of

Andrew Jackson Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was an American lawyer, planter, general, and statesman who served as the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before being elected to the presidency, he gained fame as ...

References

External links

Detailed record of the painting via the Norman Rockwell Museum website
{{Statue of Liberty 1946 paintings Paintings by Norman Rockwell Works originally published in The Saturday Evening Post Art in the White House Statue of Liberty Birds in art

Creation

Display in the Oval Office

See also

References

External links